Avery
“Momma?” Maddi calls out from the backseat.
I peer at her through the rear-view mirror. “Maddi?”
“When’s The Bachelor come on?”
It makes me laugh. “I have no clue. I don’t watch it.”
She gasps, her blue eyes widening as her mouth drops. “Momma! I can’t believe it!”
“Are you saying you’ve watched it?”
She smacks her teeth and brushes her golden-brown hair behind her ear. “Well, no. But Andy says it’s to die for.”
I bite my smile between my teeth. This girl and her personality is the best entertainment. “Why does he think it’s to die for?”
“Who’s he?”
“Andy, silly. Does he watch it?”
She slaps her forehead and shakes her head. “Andy’s a girl.” That should’ve had a “duh” funneling straight at me.
“Oh. Okay. Then why does she think it’s to die for?”
She shrugs and then looks out the window. “She said the guy gives girls really pretty roses until he picks the girl he really likes. Momma, why don’t you have a guy to give you a rose?”
“Well, I—”
“You don’t stink. If you did, I would tell you, but you don’t because you shower. I think you’re the coolest mom ever, even though you didn’t let me watch Barney when I was little. Andy says you ruined my childhood. I wanted to smack her, but then remembered you said if I get into a fight it better be for a good reason ‘cause I’d be in a lot of trouble. And I don’t want to be. Roo and Mir said they want to take me to a place with really pretty flowers and I want to go because I want to get you a rose ‘cause I think you’re really pretty and you need one.”
My vibrant, bubbly bundle of joy has me cracking up and desperate to gather an inhale just for her. “I think it’s sweet of you to want to give me a flower. But I totally didn’t ruin your childhood. I saved you from a weird purple dinosaur that likes to sing dumb songs. I’m also glad you didn’t hit Andy. If you did, I would have made sure Uncle Roo and Aunt Mir went to the gardens without you.”
“You’re totally not getting a rose with that attitude.”
I burst out laughing.
Her little face looks frustrated as she peers back out the window and doesn’t say another word until we pull into the driveway.
“Oh!” Maddi squeals her delight when she sees Raven’s truck. “I bet Aunt Rave has seen it.” She grabs her book bag and springs out of the car, racing toward the front door.
Raven’s auburn hair is sitting in a sloppy mess on top of her head with sprigs falling loosely around her neck. She may be my age, but she doesn’t look a day over seventeen with her baby face. Depending on the situation, it’s a blessing or curse.
Maddi’s beside her on the couch, yapping away when I shut the door behind me. “Sooo, that’s why Andy says it’s a good show, but momma doesn’t watch it. I knew you just had to. Do you get flowers?”
Raven’s brows are stretched high, silently asking for a way out of the conversation. I shove my hand on my hip and dig her hole a little bit deeper…because that’s what we do. “Go ahead, Rave. Tell her all about the show.”
Raven narrows her deadly glare at me and slowly looks back to Maddi. “Why do you care about The Bachelor? It’s boring as ever.”
Maddi shrugs her little shoulders. “Not what Andy says. She says it’s super good. They go on trips and they eat dinner.”
“You eat dinner every night and your momma and uncle take you places.”
Maddi rolls her eyes. “It’s not the same.”
I know better than to try and argue with Maddi when she gets stuck on something like this. She’ll turn blue in the face with her argument. Personally, I’d rather discuss with a cement wall how hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backward.
Maddi skips off and I hug Raven’s neck. “I’ve missed the hell out of you. How was your trip?”
She looks to the ceiling. “Hell,” she mutters. “My mother is losing her mind with my dad not too far behind her. I swear they’re going through a mid-life crisis. Dude, my dad bought a Miata and thinks it’s cool.”
I blow a laugh under my breath.
“I tried telling him if he was going to mid-life it up, he needed to do it right and buy a Porsche instead. But whatever. What’s his daughter know anyway?”
“And exactly how would you feel if he bought a brand new Porsche and acted like he was in his twenties again?”
She flashes a wry smirk. “Like a pimp’s daughter.” She snickers and then flicks her wrist. “Enough about them. I’ve been gone for a solid week. What’s new with you other than your daughter finding out that you ruined her childhood by keeping her away from the purple dino.”
“Nothing’s changed other than working with Ryan for a little bit until Lori can come back.”
“You liking it?”
“I will once I get the office cleaned up. It’s so unorganized.” I groan.
“You could’ve had an interesting weekend if you’d gotten off your high horse. You’re stupid as hell for not staying the evening with the wine guy. I would’ve ridden him like a bull just for the fun of it.”
“I wanted to. God… He was fine as hell.”
She arches her brow. “First, if you weren’t a chicken shit you could’ve had an Avery special. Second, I would have made up every excuse to stick around and find out if the goodies are as great as the good looks.”
Raven calls them Avery specials. I call them one-night stands where we don’t have to worry about what the next morning will look like because I’m out the door before he wakes up. It’s been five years since I’ve pulled one off. Call it growing up, or maturing dignity, or the fact I would be devastated if I found out my daughter did it when she’s older.
I shrug. “I grew out of it.”
Raven bursts out into an exaggerated laughing fit and slaps her knee. “Oh, puh-lease. No one grows out of needing a good fucking. I think your hermit shell is cramping your style.”
I shove her shoulder. “Nothing’s cramping my style. I’m just not interested in it anymore.”
Her hands fly up. “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. The ‘it’ you speak of better be Avery specials and not dick because no woman in her right mind just stops being interested in it. Unless you’ve switched sides this week while I was gone.”
“Jesus, Raven,” I giggle. “Sounds like you’re the one in need of a good night.”
“Oh, you’re very right. But this isn’t about me. I know how to fulfill my needs.” She jerks her head. “Come on. Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”
I’m watching Maddi make a mess while she attempts to eat a taco. She doesn’t grasp the fact you hold the damn shell and turn your head. Nope. Not my daughter. Instead, she tilts everything—her head and the taco—causing it to fall onto her plate before she scoops it back up and does it again.
Raven wipes her mouth and then sympathetic eyes land on me. “I’m sorry to hear about your grandmother’s land. I hate that you ran out of avenues.”
I glance to my half-eaten enchilada. When my grandfather passed eleven years ago, he left Mamaw everything, including the entire eighty acres that his family passed down to him. Unfortunately, when my parents died, Mamaw couldn’t make ends meet and tried selling only part of it to help cover all the expenses. Although my parents had life insurance, we had to wait while they figured things out since they died at the same time. After putting the part of the land up for sale, almost immediately someone was interested, but they wanted it all. They made Mamaw an offer she couldn’t refuse and because of the situation, she made the hard decision and sold it.
Right after putting my parents in the ground, I had to help move Mamaw out of the family home—the same one I lived in when I was first born, the same place Dad was raised, and the same place he taught me how to snowboard. It wasn’t even two years later we buried Mamaw. The pain of burying her only child and selling the house took a toll. I believe she died of a broken heart.
“I couldn’t justify spending more than the last offer. I mean, over a million dollars? I would’ve been scraping by for a long while. Whoever bought it was a soulless bastard. Even after Mr. Ellison set up a mediation to explain the importance, the other bidder raised the bid. I couldn’t touch it. I was done.”
“One can hope for a broken leg that requires many surgeries and they’ll have to sell it to cover the costs.”
“One can hope,” I sigh. “I’ve come to grips with the loss. It just sucks that I won’t be able to raise Maddi in the same house where her grandfather and great grandparents grew up. The same place I learned to board, busted my butt, broke an ankle and a wrist, but never gave up.”
“You don’t need that house to teach her to be strong, Ave,” Raven’s tone is tender.
A small smile stretches my lips. “I know. She’ll be strong without it, but it still would’ve been nice to have it back in the family.”
“I know.”
“I woulded done better with a burrito,” Maddi interrupts our heart to heart. “This thing keeps falling apart.”
“Your momma tried telling you, but you’re too hardheaded to listen,” Raven beats me to it.
Maddi’s blue eyes narrow, glaring at Raven. And if looks could talk, she’s tossing some major cuss words her way.
I pull her plate to me and scoop all the food that hasn’t hit her mouth into the center. “Now you have a taco salad.”
“No way! That’s how you make a taco salad? You just crumble it and mix it together? We need to have this more. And you can make the sauce. It’s really good. Could you make it? I can try to help.”
“I could try,” I reply.
“Tomorrow we’ll have taco salad and we’ll make the sauce.”
“I’m not having tacos two days in a row,” I say.
Raven gasps, fighting back a smile. “You won’t have tacos two days in a row? What’s wrong with you?” She feigns surprise. “I can’t believe I’m friends with you. Tacos are life.”
“Yeah, Momma. Tacos are life,” Maddi repeats.
I duck my head to hide my laugh. No way do I need to egg them on.
“Hang that head in shame, Avery Taylor,” Raven tacks on.
“Yeah. Shame.” Maddi follows suit.
A brilliant and wicked idea hits me and I grin like the devil when I flick my view to Raven. “We all know you’re better in the kitchen than I am. Maddi has never tried your homemade salsa either. Come over and help us.”
“Yeah!” Maddi squeaks her excitement. “We can have a cook off. Me and you against Momma.”
Raven’s murdering me with a playful glare. “It wouldn’t be fair. I mean, I wouldn’t want to interrupt mother and daughter time.
“But…that’s not fair. I can’t use the stove. I’ll lose if you don’t come. You have to so I can win,” Maddi plays her puppy dog eyes.
I grin victoriously. My little girl just placed Raven in checkmate.
Raven closes her eyes briefly. “Fine. I’ll be here tomorrow for tacos…again.”
Maddi squeals.
“Tacos are life,” I mock.